Tristan Azbej, the state secretary responsible for aid to persecuted Christians and the Hungary Helps programme, addressed the International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington, DC.
At the panel Governments and Frameworks that Advance Religious Freedom, Azbej said the persecution of Christians was “one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world”, affecting 340 million people worldwide. At the same time, international forums mostly “ignore it completely”, Azbej said. The Hungary Helps programme has supported 250,000 people worldwide in the past four years, enabling them to remain in their homelands or return after having emigrated, he said. On the sidelines of the conference, Azbej met representatives of USAID and the US State Department to discuss the expansion of a bilateral cooperation agreement between USAID and Hungary Helps, designed to aid persecuted Christians and Yazidis in Iraq. They also looked into expanding the programme to help Christians, women and girls in African crisis zones, Azbej said. Azbej also gave an interview to conservative news channel Newsmax, and talked about Hungary’s child protection law and the “international fake news campaign” in its wake.
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